Case study: Decathlon Italy increases conversion rate of Facebook Ads campaigns and optimizes customer journey thanks to GA4 and server-side tracking

Decathlon is one of the most renowned sports brands worldwide, with more than 1,700 shops in 59 countries and clothing and equipment for more than 80 sports disciplines. A responsible company committed to projects that combine sustainability, digital and personalized services.

Starting from its own business needs, Decathlon Italia's requirement was to identify objectives and make business and marketing decisions related to sustainability.

In particular, the brand needed to focus on a Digital Analytics strategy related to the business of Decathlon Rent, the proprietary sports equipment rental platform, and to combine its objectives with ad hoc digital strategies, enhanced by a tracking system that exploited the potential of Google Analytics 4.

Combined with the construction of a solid implementation strategy for the tracking system and GA4, the need was to develop and integrate all GA4 features from a technological point of view, but also in light of the regulatory and privacy context.

The solution adopted

Starting with the drafting of the measurement plan document, which is fundamental for defining clear and concrete business objectives and then declining them into marketing objectives and KPIs, TagManagerItaia, top partner of Stape,  proceeded to the realization of specific technical implementations to ensure Decathlon Italia obtains:

• a totally customized migration and configuration of e-commerce tracking in GA4.
• tracking management of its e-commerce portal via a proprietary server to make data collection and management more accurate and secure - thanks to Server-Side tracking.

• total and flexible control of the data collection and processing system, modifying tracking behavior according to the consents users grant or deny on the portal - thanks to Consent Mode.

The results obtained

The strategic and technical interventions implemented made it possible to:

• comprehensively map the navigation and rental experience of users within their shop.
• identify users' preferences for options and services in order to carry out ad hoc activities and optimisations on the platform and in email campaigns.
• analyze errors and bottlenecks that prevented users from continuing along the e-commerce conversion funnel.
• obtain a system to identify needs for targeted business interventions for a specific sport and location.
• optimize and redistribute more effectively the budget dedicated to translations of the Decathlon Rent portal into other key marketing and business activities.

In the end:  increased the conversion rate of Decathlon Italia's Facebook Ads campaigns, while reduced costs per click, as well as gathered feedback from customers to make optimisations to the navigation and purchase path on their portal.